


La Bruja Pájaro

by youmaybethechancellor



Category: La Reina del Sur (TV), Queen of the South, Queen of the South (TV), Queen of the South (USA Network), Queen of the South - USA
Genre: Camila is a literal witch AU, Established Relationship, F/M, Jorinda and Joringel AU, fairytale AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-31
Updated: 2018-08-31
Packaged: 2019-07-05 02:52:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15854745
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/youmaybethechancellor/pseuds/youmaybethechancellor
Summary: Jorinda and Joringel AU !





	La Bruja Pájaro

**Author's Note:**

> So this is based off of Jorinda and Joringel which was written by the Brothers Grimm… that can be found [here]()
> 
> Okay so um I know that [Cielito Lindo](https://www.mamalisa.com/?t=es&p=3222) was written in 1882 but did I include it anyway,, yes,, forgive me
> 
> Did the world need some weird QotS fairytale fanfiction?? No. Does it have it now, though? Yes.

Once upon a time there was an old castle in the middle of a large and thick forest, and in it was an old _bruja_ who lived all alone. In the daylight she kept her proper shape as a human being -- though she sometimes liked to turn into a rattlesnake when she found a nice rock to sun herself on -- but in the evenings she changed herself into a great black jaguar. She could lure the wild beasts with her magic, and then she would kill and skin and cook them. If any innocent maiden came within one hundred steps of her castle, she found himself unable to move or speak until the witch freed her. But whenever a man traveled too close to her home, the witch changed him into a _pájaro_ and shut him up in a woven cage, and carried the cage into a room in the castle. After years of collecting wandering young men in this way, she had about seven thousand cages of rare birds in the castle. 

Now, there was once a maiden who was named Teresa, who was fairer than all other girls of the land. She and a handsome youth named James had been promised to each other. The two of them knew no happiness greater than being together. 

One bright morning, the pair went on a lark in the forest, so that they may speak without the listening ears of their parents. 

“Take care,” said Teresa, “that we do not go too near the castle.” For they had both heard the stories of what happened to the _jovenes_ that ventured too close.

It was a beautiful day. The sunlight leaked through the treetops and made the rich forest all the more enticing. The couple picked their way through the forest, lost in conversation as the nightingales sang to them from upon the tree branches. The smell of the rich earth beneath their feet and their easy laughter coaxed them deeper and deeper into the forest, until they realized that it was well past midday and they hadn’t a clue where they were or which way was home.   
They tried to trace back their steps, but the once-sweet dirt had been enchanted to wipe them away. 

“What shall we do?” 

The boy tried very hard to remember if their surroundings looked familiar, but his head was full of the white of her smile against her skin and the way her hair turned russet in the sun. 

“Maybe this is the way,” he said as he pointed in a direction that he hoped was familiar. 

Teresa took _su novio_ by the hand for she was frightened, and they went in the direction he had pointed them in. The sun was halfway below the mountain when Teresa tripped over a tree-root and stumbled. James caught her before she reached the ground, and led her to sit upon a rock. She became overwhelmed with sorrow and began to weep into her hands. James could not help but share in her sorrow. The forest no longer looked inviting but menacing. They felt as though they were about to die, and it made them all the more woeful and miserable. He left her to try to look around, and to his horror, he saw the cracked walls of the castle close by. 

James returned and stood in front of Teresa, petting her lovely hair and singing softly

Ay, ay, ay, ay,  
Canta y no llores,  
Porque cantando se alegran,  
Cielito lindo, los corazones.  
Ay, ay, gaw, gaw, gaw

Teresa looked up in surprise, her tears forgotten. There in front of her was a peculiar little blob of black and white. She had never seen such a thing before. It was small, with a silver-white stomach and webbed feet like the ducks her papá hunted. The bird opened its beak and cried _gaw, gaw, g-_

A jaguar with glowing eyes lept from the trees and pounced on the little bird, snatching him up in its maw. The great cat walked off into the thick woods with the bird, leaving her quite alone.   
Teresa found that she could not move. She sat there like a stone, and could not wipe her tears or sob, nor stand or stretch. The songbirds that had once urged her and James on had ceased their singing, and the sun had set. 

From the place that the jaguar had gone came a middle-aged woman with hair black as night and cold, brown eyes that promised nothing but malice. The enchantress, for that was what she was, muttered to herself about something that sounded like “monogamy,” but Teresa did not know what she meant. The strange bird wriggled in her grasp and almost got away from her. The dark-haired witch flicked her wrist and the bird was gone. Teresa would have blinked in surprise if she could have moved at all. 

The woman’s hands slid down her thighs of her dress, which her mother would have said was too tight, and said in a husky voice, “Hello, muñequita. When the moon shines on my basket, you will be freed.” 

The _bruja’s_ eyes seemed to bore into hers, and Teresa feared that the she could see straight into her mind. It felt like hours later that the clouds shifted and Teresa was freed. 

She fell on her knees before the woman and begged that she return her James, but the witch said that she should never have him again and left her on the cold ground. 

Teresa called and wept and cried out to the Angel to bring back her love, but no one was listening. “What am I to do?”

When she had run out of tears to cry and the cold had begun to seep into her dress, she stood and tried to clean herself up. She began to feel very thirsty and tired, and did not know if she could continue on with how hungry she was. Teresa started off in the opposite direction of the witch. Though it was dark and she could not see but for the light of the full moon, Teresa did not stumble. She must have walked for hours before she at last came to a little house. 

She knocked on the door to beg for a mouthful of water and a place to sleep out of the cold. The door was opened by a man with broad shoulders and a large moustache. He looked her over and waved her in without a word. Teresa should have been afraid, but he reminded her of his father and she felt no wickedness about him. 

Teresa stayed with the hunter for a long while, helping him with his work in exchange for a place to sleep and a full belly. She often walked around the castle, but never too near to it. She feared that the witch would not let her go if she was caught a second time. 

Her days blended into one another until at last she dreamt of finding a blood-red flower with a beautiful pearl in the center. She picked the flower and took it with her to the castle, and everything that she touched with the flower was freed from its enchantment. 

She woke with the sun and began at once to pack the little things that she had made during her time there. The hunter did not want Teresa to go, for he had come to love her like she was his own daughter, but he saw that she could not be persuaded otherwise. 

Teresa searched for the blood-flower tirelessly for eight days, and on the ninth morning, she found it growing in the center of a clearing. She wept with joy at the sight of it, for it was just as she had seen in her dream, with a large dew-drop in the center, as big and as fine as the loveliest of pearls. 

Teresa walked day and night back to the castle, for she did not tire or hunger so long as she held fast to the little flower. When she was within a hundred steps of the castle, she was not frozen by the witch’s magic, but could walk on all the way to the door. Teresa grinned as she touched the flower to the door and it sprang open easily. 

She entered the courtyard, and found that it was littered with cages of all sizes, but none of them held the little black bird she sought. Teresa continued to search the rooms of the castle until at last she came to the great room that kept the rarest of the witch’s birds. The witch was feeding the birds on the far side of the room. She turned when Teresa entered and grew very, very angry, for no one had ever been able to resist her magic before. The witch screeched and spat and hissed at her, but Teresa was not afraid, for the witch would not dare come too close to her. She went and looked at all the cages, but there were so many lining the walls that she feared that she would never find her beloved James. 

Teresa turned to the witch to demand that she return him, but the witch was not where she thought she was. She looked round the room and saw that a figure holding a wicker cage slipping out. Teresa ran after them, but she always seemed so far behind. It was not until la bruja neared the castle walls that Teresa caught up. 

Teresa touched the witch with the flower and instantly all of her magic disappeared. She could no longer bewitch anyone. The witch fell to her knees and began to wither and die, for she was much older than any one human had ever been before. 

But Teresa was not concerned with the death of the old woman. She righted the cage that had fallen and knelt before it, touching it with the flower. As soon as it was touched, the cage fell away and the penguin inside was transformed back into James. Teresa threw her arms around his neck and wept for joy. He pet her lovely hair and murmured into her neck about how much he loved her and how she had saved him. 

When she was quite out of tears and her knees hurt from kneeling on the hard ground, she took James by the hand and they went around to each of the seven thousand cages, freeing all of the young men that had been trapped by the witch. 

After they had freed the last boy from his cage, James and Teresa went home, and they lived happily together until the end of their days.


End file.
